Tara

Tara was born on March 2, 1392, in a Koch household on the wet, low fields near Nageshwari in north Bengal, where the Bengal Sultanate’s tax collectors and patrols touched village life through headmen and messengers. Her family spoke an eastern Indo‑Aryan village speech and kept household rites for protective beings and ancestors alongside fieldwork.

Her father, Bhola, carried messages for the village headman and took turns watching at night, then went back to his plots in daylight. Her mother, Sona, ran the household, fed poultry, and kept a small patch of greens near the yard. Three of Sona’s babies had died in the first years of her marriage; three others survived — Kamini, now ten, Gita, seven, and Harun, five. Another boy, Bakul, had died as a newborn the previous year. When Sona’s labor began, Dhonai, Bhola’s mother from a nearby hamlet, came in and sent for Mira Dai to attend the birth.

Tara arrived small and quiet. Kamini heated water and kept the fire going. Gita pounded rice and carried it to neighbors who brought back thin gruel and a little goat milk. Harun stayed near the doorway and watched. Dhonai tied a black thread at Tara’s wrist and set a pinch of rice, mustard oil, and a smear of vermilion at the edge of the yard for the household’s guarding spirit. Kanu Ojha muttered over a leaf bundle and left an amulet near the sleeping mat.

Tara did not take enough milk. On March 7, 1392, she died in the house. Bhola buried her at the edge of the family’s land, wrapped in cloth, with a few grains of rice and a dab of oil placed beside her.